Tzipora’s Story as told to Sara Klarberg
I always joke that my mother taught me to talk to strangers. Most parents warn you not to talk to people you don’t know. My mother tells us to smile at everyone. To speak to anyone and be as friendly as can be.
And, she’s like that too. We call it “Stranger Danger” as a joke in our family.
So, obviously, at American Dream, she was saying “Hi” to everyone. People we knew, people we didn’t, and people she wasn’t sure if she knew… Basically, it was a typical outing with her, but at the mall, there were so many people to greet, so she was very busy.
I didn’t know then how Hashem was working things out for us in a special way with these “hellos.”
We shopped a lot for Pesach at all our favorite spots: The Address, Zara, H&M, and Primark. We got a lot of stuff, which was perfect because I needed clothes.
And then we got home. All of us carried bags in, and we began to sort the stuff. And that’s when we realized we were missing a bag. A bag filled with clothes from Primark…
After checking the car, I realized that I had put the bag down in Zara while helping my sister try on shoes… and I never picked it up.
We needed this bag! It was valuable, and we had spent so much time finding the clothes! We tried calling the store and customer service, but they couldn’t help us. No one would look for our bag. We were stuck. It was drive back to the mall or lose our stuff forever. I felt so bad. It was my fault. I had put it down.
Suddenly, my mother remembered the last person she had said “hi” to. She told them about the great stuff to buy in Primark, and they said they were planning to go there. She called them, and luckily, they were still in the mall. And not only did they go look for our bag…they found it! And then, they said, they were coming to our neighborhood and drove it to our house!
It felt like our own little neis. Hashem’s hug. On a day that seemed so ordinary, He sent us a gift. A bag we lost so we could feel Him close.
What I learned:
Sometimes, Hashem shows us His love specifically through something good that we do! By helping us get our bag back through a fellow Jew we had been kind to, He saved us from a loss. Hashem was showing that He wanted us to get our bag back – and also that good things come from being kind to our fellow Jew!
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 77.
